Inhibitory effect of lactobacillus plantarum extracts on HT-29 colon cancer cell apoptosis induced by Staphylococcus aureus and its alpha-toxin

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus plays an important role in sepsis, septic shock, pneumonia, and wound infections. Here, we demonstrate that Lactobacillus plantarum extracts inhibited S. aureus-induced cell death of a human epithelial cell line, HT-29. In particular, we have shown that S. aureus-induced cell death was abolished by neutralization of a-toxin, indicating that a-toxin is the major mediator of S. aureus-induced cell death. DNA fragmentation experiment and caspase assay revealed that the S. aureus-induced cell death was apoptosis. L. plantarum extracts inhibited the generation of effector caspase-3 and the initiator caspase-9 in S. aureusor a-toxin-induced cell death. Moreover, expression of Bcl-2, an anti-apoptotic protein, was activated in L. plantarum extract-treated cells as compared with the S. aureus- or a-toxin-treated only cells. Furthermore, S. aureus-induced apoptosis was efficiently inhibited by lipoteichoic acid and peptidoglycan of L. plantarum. Together, our results suggest that L. plantarum extracts can inhibit the S. aureus-mediated apoptosis, which is associated with S. aureus spreading, in intestinal epithelial cells, and may provide a new therapeutic reagent to treat bacterial infections.